Ghost of Yotei developers cut around 10% of the studio

The studio Sucker Punch, which made Ghost of Yotei, has laid off 24 employees. According to the estimate of the outlet Aftermath, which first reported the cuts, that is roughly 10% of the team; the studio itself confirmed the layoffs.

The studio named two reasons: the situation on the market and the kind of make-up the team needs for its next project. Exactly which disciplines were affected by the cuts has not been specified.

What employees received in the letter

The text of the message quoted by Aftermath is built on the same logic. "After carefully studying the challenges on the market and reconsidering the team's needs for our next project, we decided to go ahead with a reduction in staff," the letter says. "As a result, a number of positions at Sucker Punch will be eliminated."

The letter goes on to say that the decision was not made in haste and that the studio intends to help the affected colleagues "as much as possible." The message ends like this: "There's no getting away from the fact that this is a hard day. Next week we'll talk in more detail about the future."

The studio has not revealed the name of its next game, its genre, or its timeline. At the same time, there are open job listings on the Sucker Punch website, and the studio describes its own approach as working on one project at a time so that the entire team can gather around it.

Why layoffs follow a release

Cuts after a big project ships are a feature of the production cycle of major games. By the end of development, headcount is usually inflated to its maximum: you need animators, environment artists, testers, and specialists in optimization and localization. When the game comes out, that volume of work disappears, while pre-production on the next project requires a different balance of disciplines — fewer hands and more designers, concept artists, and technical architects. Studios bridge the gap between these two states in different ways: internal transfers, contract work, or, as in this case, layoffs.

Layered on top of the overall picture is what the letter calls challenges on the market. For the past several years, cuts have come in waves at publishers, at platform holders' internal studios alike, and a high-profile release offers no protection from them. Against this backdrop, Ghost of Yotei looks like yet another confirmation: even at a team that has just released a major project for the platform, headcount is being revised downward.

If the trend holds, studios will likely continue to keep a smaller permanent core and more often bring in outsourcing at peak stages of production — animation, environments, VFX, QA. For specialists, that means a shift of employment toward project contracts and co-dev studios, and for the games themselves, longer development cycles: assembling a team for the peak from scratch every time takes longer than keeping one.

Community reaction

On X, the news of the layoffs at Sucker Punch spread widely: @Wario64's post linking to Aftermath drew more than two million views, and the tone beneath it split immediately. A notable share of the audience is outraged and does not believe the explanation about the market and the needs of the next project. They call Ghost of Yotei a success — the discussion repeatedly cites sales of several million copies in the first month — and they do not understand why about a tenth of the studio has to go after that. A frequent conclusion: even a successful game and a comparatively modest budget no longer insure a Sony team. Alongside that, there is no less skepticism and schadenfreude. These voices believe the game did not measure up to Ghost of Tsushima, and they tie the cuts to how the studio pitched the project and whom it put front and center. The calm line is quieter: a contraction in headcount after a release is called a normal occurrence, and the current headcount still higher than it was around the launch of Ghost of Tsushima.

"Sucker Punch puts out a great game, Ghost of Yotei, sells 3.3 million copies in the first month — and still gets hit with layoffs. It feels like no studio at Sony is safe anymore."

— @realradec (X)

"And here everyone was telling me the game sold so well."

— @PlasmaWave42 (X)

"I wake up and see layoffs at Sucker Punch: Ghost of Yotei didn't measure up to Tsushima, and their activist Erika Ishii didn't resonate with players — we're tired of the agenda being pushed in the industry."

— @SmashJT (X)

What comes first here: miscalculations in planning the new project, the general cooling of the single-player market, the drawn-out reshuffle at Sony?